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I'd like to live in a world were instead of developers just breaking an existing api, they leave the existing, in use apis and add new ones. It's ridiculous how
by dayjobpork 6y ago
I'd like to live in a world were instead of developers just breaking an existing api, they leave the existing, in use apis and add new ones. It's ridiculous how often shit just breaks because an api is changed in an update.
- dewey 6y agoBecause in 90% of the cases the API isn't removed for fun but because something in the backend changed. You can't just "leave the existing" as that still means work if you have to write some translation layer from the old format to the new format. It's not like it would be free to keep the existing one around.
- hapless 6y agoThat approach is what made XUL and XPCOM un-maintainable -- a giant catalog of APIs in which large fractions were legacy, but non-removeable.
- masklinn 6y agoI'm sympathetic, but literally most of the article is about how hard Mozilla tried to do this, and how it slowed them to a standstill and precluded improvements entirely.
- SkyMarshal 6y agoI’d rather the main platform keep its internal codebase clean and streamlined, removing/replacing APIs whenever there’s a need, and publishing advanced warning so that plugin devs can update their plugins. Legacy plugins shouldn’t be a reason for spaghetti code in the main platform.
- Lex-2008 6y agoShall we keep compatibility with 16-bit drivers and TSRs when formatting floppy disks? https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20090102-00/?p=19623 https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20090102-00/?p=19...
- peterkos 6y agoThere's this project called "Microsoft Windows" that's done this for decades. You want to be the one digging through 1998-era C++ to fix a bug? Didn't think so.